Didier Ah Koon is a versatile artist and director in CGI industry. Check out his interview.
Didier is a prolific Storyboard Artist and Director working with major animation studios: Illumination Entertainment, Universal, Blue Sky Studios, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Hasbro, Pearl Studio. He is contributing to the success of Highest Blockbusters Animated Movies like The Lorax, Despicable Me 2, Minions Movie, The Secret Life Of Pets, Ice Age: Collision Course, Smurfs: The Lost Village, Emoji Movie, Angry Birds Movie 2, Playmobil Movie, Vivo, My Little Pony, The Monkey King.
He has directed the short film “Cro Minion” at Illumination Entertainment released on The Minions Movie Blu-Ray. He is also the Author of Minions Volume 1: Banana! comic book and PERSEUS (original comic book). PERSEUS won the 2019 NICKELODEON kid’s comic book choice award.
His specialty is to reach the largest audience with his Story and Comedy expertise. What he enjoys the most is provoking emotions by thinking outside the box!
His social links: IMDB, LinkedIn, Website
Check out our detailed interview of Didier.
Dear Didier. Kindly share details of your educational background.
I obtained a scientific baccalaureate and then I started to study art at Emile Cohl School (France). It’s a great academic art school centered on the learning of drawing. They teach specific workshops like strip cartooning, watercolors, travel journals and animation. I made my first animations there and I loved it.
After Emile Cohl, I went to Gobelins, a very renowned animation school in Paris. The school animation program and workshops are fantastic and the speakers are well-known professionals. I graduated in 2007.
How did you interested in this creative industry?
In France, there was a very popular kids TV show in the 80s that broadcasted a lot of anime like Dragon Ball, Knights of the Zodiac, Goldorak, City Hunter…. I started drawing to try to reproduce those amazing Japanese animated series characters.
My father was a big movie fan. Every week, he rented a couple of movies and we watched them with all the family. He also had a huge comic book collection. So I had the chance to be influenced by Western and Eastern art and entertainment culture (films from the US, anime and manga from Japan, art and story heritage from Europe).
I naturally came to study animation and cinema with the strong desire to tell great stories like those that moved me during my childhood.
I started my career working as a TV series storyboard artist. (In all styles: anime, cartoon, action 2D / 3D…)
You wear multiple hats. Let us know about all your professional jobs.
The TV series is an excellent school: the schedule is very tight you have to learn to work fast and well. I really loved the job and became very prolific. My work got noticed and I had the great opportunity to work on feature films. I quickly became a “gagman”, expert in comedy and story development.
Now I usually work from scratch, without scripts and I’m very happy that my improvised sequences are often used in the movie trailers. (like the Minions movie and The Secret Life Of Pets teasers)
Minions Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9-FCC6I7u0
Secret Life Of Pets Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4WBlveGfw&t=33s
I have worked on: The Lorax, Despicable Me 2, Minions Movie, The Secret Life Of Pets, Ice Age: Collision Course, Smurfs: The Lost Village, Emoji Movie, Angry Birds Movie 2, Playmobil Movie, Vivo, My Little Pony, The Monkey King.
I am the author of the MINIONS and PERSEUS comic books.I pitched an idea to Illumination Entertainment producer Chris Meledandri. He loved it and gave me the chance to direct the short film CROMINION released on MINIONS movie blu-ray.
PERSEUS is my original comic book published by Editions Delcourt. It’s a reboot of Perseus myth, filled with action, adventure and humor. There is magic, technology, explosions and laughs. Strong and serious themes like exclusion, racism, fear of the other are also approached throughout the stories of the monsters who have been banned from the human society.
PERSEUS won the 2019 NICKELODEON KIDS’ COMIC BOOK CHOICE AWARD.
I also give writing and storyboard masterclasses in animation schools in Paris. I love wearing multiple hats, learning new skills, and doing a lot of different creative things. I’m really grateful to be able to do all those things.
What are your views on importance of storyboard?
When making a movie, series, commercial, trailer…the goal is to reach your audience. The script is the crucial base of the story but it can be interpreted in a lot of very different ways.
For example when you read a book, everyone can picture the story very differently in their mind. So, the storyboard is helping everyone involved in the production seeing the direction of the project, what it will look like with concrete storyboard images. The storyboard is the first “visualisation” of the project. It’s an amazing visual guide for directors and executives to make decisions and for the production to make the movie.
What’s a storyboard artist anyway?
The storyboard artist role is to help directors and producers telling the story visually. They have to find solutions and improve the script following the director’s instructions and notes.
More precisely the storyboard artist must take the script to the next level by suggesting ideas for acting, comedy, staging. They have to extract the full potential of each scene and think of the transitions from one scene to another.
Before a storyboard artist receives a script, the directors have already spent a lot of hours in meetings. with the writers, producers and all the departments. So they might not have time to explain and summarize everything. That is why it is very important that the storyboard artist trusts the director’s vision and instructions. This is the key issue of the job: You have to learn to work partially in the dark and keep putting all your energy, talent and creativity everyday.
You had worked on scope of small scale project to high-end movies. How do feel the difference between production pipelines?
The main difference is that, on high-end movies, it is possible to try, do and redo scenes multiple times.
For example, on big productions, the script is re-written a lot of time, even if the project is well advanced. Best example of that, Illumination was making a movie, and after one year and a half in production, they decided to change the main character of the story. So everything had to be re-made. That movie was “Despicable Me”. At first Gru was just a “sidekick”; he was serving a bigger villain but then executives and directors thought it would be funny if that sidekick was actually the main character and in the end, it worked really well!
In smaller productions, the first version of the script won’t change a lot, everything will be “locked” very early with limited redo scenes. Also artists have less time to execute their tasks.
From my experience as a storyboard artist, when I worked on TV series, I had to produce 2 to 3 times more panels a day than on feature films.
The great thing is when you work in a high paced environment, you have to adapt and develop techniques to create fast and well. So later, when you work on bigger productions (and have more time), you can apply those techniques. It will make your job so much easier and you can focus on the quality of your work and progress even more. So starting working on small productions or TV series is a great “school” to excel in future bigger productions.
We would love to know regarding ‘how to think’ when dealing with fresh project.
Working on a new fresh project is always great! You’re excited and have a lot of energy.
In fact, the challenge is to keep this early motivation all along. After months or even years, you could feel a little bit tired, but don’t forget that what you create will provide hours of entertainment for the audience. So try to do everything to keep a fresh mind in the long run: rest, exercise, do other things to clear your mind of your work.
How can one improve his/her technical and creative skills?
Technical skills can be improved by learning from senior artists, watching tutorials, practicing and developing your own methods. Always have a mindset of being an apprentice and stay curious. In the long term, the most rewarding thing is to challenge yourself and learn new things. How to do it faster, better, what other skills can you develop.
Creative skills can be improved by practicing. If you want to be a writer you have to write. If you want to be a story creator, invent stories.
I’ve become a Comedy specialist by trying to find gags everyday and working on the story to develop the comedy. The crazy thing is that you can exercise your brain to be creative. Finding great ideas for gag, staging and acting took me hours or even days but today I can find them in a couple of minutes. (But have in mind it took me years and years to get this fast)
So my advice is practice, practice…For your inspiration watch movies, series, read books, comic books mangas…new ones, old ones. The more you see and read, the better.
Last but not least, live your “real” life, outside of your artistic job. I think the most important thing is to have great and various life experiences to be able to tell them or invent great stories. When you tell a story the audience can always feel the author’s point of view. So in order to reach the maximum of people you definitely have to open to the world!
Based on years of professional experience, what is your advice to novice and experienced artists?
For novice artists: be curious, be like a sponge, learn everything from the senior artists, put yourself at the service of the production, try to be as helpful as possible and be modest. Keep in mind that Animation and VFX are small worlds and your behaviour will always be remembered.
For experienced artists: stay curious, keep on developing your skills, learn new one, learn things outside of your fields (teaching, negotiating, accounting, marketing…)
It’s very easy and common to get bored after a lot of years but remember you can always learn more and improve. If you ever feel stuck, know that the world is big, you can always find a way to do what you like or even find something new that you’ll like!
Which parameters should be worked upon when you are searching for a new job? Please give detailed information.
It is very important to be visible. So, be on social networks, have a website with samples of your works. Linkedin has become unavoidable. You can feature samples of your work and website links directly on Linkedin. The recruiter must immediately understand how you can be useful.
Those are very simple and obvious pieces of advice but in reality, surprisingly a lot of people are not making those basic efforts. So you might as well take advantage of it.
When you’ve met and exchanged with a recruiter, even if the response is negative, always stay in touch. Give them updates regularly. Don’t reach out only for asking for a job. Very often I connect with a recruiter and then they reach me back for a job opportunity a couple years later.
How AR, VR, MR and related technologies are changing the canvas of storytelling and filmmaking?
Those new technologies are developing, they are amazing tools to tell stories and provoke emotions.
I worked on the Despicable Me 3D ride at Universal Orlando, which is an immersive VR ride. It was really different from working on a classic movie. I took into account the audience as a 1st person active viewer. I worked on multiple elements on the screen and developed the background characters. I anticipated where the viewer would look. It’s more immersive than a movie and it demands different conceptions.
It’s really exciting to work on those kinds of projects because we are still exploring the possibilities. I don’t know if it will completely change the canvas of storytelling and filmmaking but it will definitely challenge and force us to think differently, try new stuff and just for that it’s fantastic!
What are your future plans?
I’m currently working on a new MY LITTLE PONY (Boulder Media Hasbro) and THE MONKEY KING (Pearl Studio) animated feature films in development.
I’m still writing my comic book PERSEUS, the third volume will be released this year.
I’m also developing TV series concept, pitching to the studios, I’m actually in discussion to produce one of them.